Downloading subtitles using MPC

MPC means Media Player Classic (download), it is a little old – latest release is dated to 2006-03-20, but that means nothing. It is still one of the best software players floating around. I will show you in this guide how to download perfectly matched subtitles without opening any website using OpenSubtitles.org ISDb protocol. UPDATE: 2013-05-28: There are still users, who coming to this post and checking the guide. I updated guide (and screenshots) to using MPC-HC (download) – we can say updated MPC, so use MPC-HC instead of MPC. At the start of deciding which hash should be used for matching subtitles with movies on opensubtitles.org, I checked, if there is no hash algo for this. I found in MPC, it supports downloading subtitles from website, so I contacted Gabest – coder of MPC. We changed some mails, he gave me access to download database, and I came to conclusion – OS should use this special hash – not the best one – but there were already some thousands of hashes submitted. Currently opensubtitles.org have more than 94.000 hashes – this was in October 2007. Currently there is almost 1.000.000 hashes (May 2013). Problem with MPC is, no subtitle database currently exists, so no one can use its unique features. I grabbed some MPC source codes, and programmed ISDb support. Let’s see how it works, it is really simple, and if you will setup MPC, you will (almost) never use “normal” searching anymore.

Step 1: Open MPC-HC, press “O” – you will get options window, Find Playback -> Output, change settings to VMR9 (renderless) or VMR7 (renderless) – if you will not change this, Download will be disabled!

Step 2: In options window set in Subtitles -> Database: “www.opensubtitles.org/isdb”, you can test it if you want

Step 3: Open some movie (drag and drop or CTRL+O), and click File-> Subtitle Database -> Download

Step 4: Select some subtitle in your language, click to Download & Open

Congratulations – you are watching movie with subtitles!

If no subtitles are available – don’t panic, go to File -> Subtitle Database -> Search – browser will open and maybe it finds something 🙂 If this step fails too, you have to search those subtitles manually – if they exists on website it means they are not “connected” with your movie, so it should be nice, if you upload them again. Maybe you ask how this works – basically it is simple – every movie is connected to subtitle using special hashes (not filenames!). You can help other people, if you will upload subtitles with movie hashes, so other will be able to download them “in fast way”. For the moment it is not possible (and maybe I will never allow this, because I’m afraid there will be many mistakes in uploads) upload subtitles using MPC.

For uploading – and for other cool things – you have to use OSCAR or SubDownloader or just select any program from this incomplete list.

Picture of Open Subtitles
Open Subtitles

Start the discussion at forum.opensubtitles.com

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  1. Pingback: andreas04: close to attraction

  3. Download 6.4.9.0 then (use link in blog), changes in 6.4.9.1:

    Changes in Media Player Classic 6.4.9.1 :

    • Applied patches:
    – ffdshow queue support (1015/1222)
    – removed subtitle db stuff
    – Disable monitor powersaving during playback on Windows Vista
    • Changed some default settings:
    – use Overlay Mixer renderer
    – enable VMR9 mixer mode
    – no rewind when done
    – no looping
    – enable exit fullscreen at end of playback
    – disable file history
    – disable autoloading of subs
    – disable internal AVI/Matroska/MPEG/MP4/OGG source filters
    – disable internal AAC/AC3/DTS/LPCM/Vorbis/MPEG2 transform filters
    – use RealMedia framework for all RealMedia files (except .rmvb)
    – disable WM ASF reader
    • Other changes:
    – auto-load subtitles option now also applies to embedded subs
    – added the following extensions to formats list: .divx .hdmov .rmm .rnx
    – added two shaders: Levels (16-235 -> 0-255) and nightvision effect
    – Better looking icon
    – Incremented some version numbers

    Sometimes newer doesn’t mean better 🙂

  4. Solved!

    Downloading last version from project guliverkli from sourceforge (6.4.9.0), it has the option, and works flawlessly 😀

    The other one was from K-lite Mega Codec Pack

  7. I just tried it (after installing version 6.4.9.0 as you guys suggested).
    I loaded movie Santa Claus 3 and it found the english subs. I also can see them while watching the movie and that’s great ! I only would like to know now where my subs are downloaded. Because I also need them later when I want to encode my movies or when I make a DVD with some Xvid movies on it with selectable subs.

    Anyway…..compliments for this nice “plugin” !

  13. Found this through a post in the CCCP forum and tried it meanwhile. Unfortunately it doesn’t work for me.
    I have MPC 6.4.9.0 as part of CCCP. When I click Subtitle Database>Download I get the Subtitles Available Online window but whatever movie file I try I don’t get subtitles showing up.

  14. Thanks a lot for this great tutorial!

    I was trying to figure out how to do this myself but couldn’t get it to work.

    I followed your simple steps and the next thing i know im watching the Japanese version of Ichi the killer with English subs.

    Thank you so much!

  15. Ton, not all movies are in database, try this:
    if you have movie with subtitles, and you cannot find those subtitles via MPC, upload those subtitles using SubDownloader or OSCAR. Now run MPC with that movie, and it should find subtitles you uploaded before.

    This is collaborative work – more users will upload subs, more users can download them.

    I tried MPC now, and it works really nice (sub downloading)

  16. Thanks 2qe. Tried that but still doesn’t work. I uploaded a subtitle file with SubDownloader and got a confirmation that database was succesfully updated. Checked that by uploading the same file again and got message that file was already in database. However clicking Subtitle Database>Download didn’t give a result, that is window stays empty. Did the same with another subtitle file but same negative result.
    Btw, it are .mkv files. Could that be the cause or the fact that CCCP uses ffdshow ? (Hope these aren’t stupid questions)

  17. Ton, show me where is your upload. I just tried that – downloaded latest CCCP, set it up, likw written in this article, opened movie in MPC, click download subtitles – no subtitles found. I have on hdd some movies with subtitles, so I uploaded subs with subdownloader – here they are: http://www.opensubtitles.org/en/subtitles/3160028/dalkomhan-insaeng-en – then opened this movie in MPC, and viola – subtitles was available.

    MKV files shouldn’t be problem I think. Try this: open subdownloader, open that file, and try to search for subtitles using subdownloader, can you find those subs ?
    (CCCP – ffdshow doesnt matter, it cannot be a issue, why it doesnt work)

  18. These are the subtitle files I uploaded:
    http://www.opensubtitles.org/en/subtitles/3160024/million-dollar-baby-nl
    http://www.opensubtitles.org/en/subtitles/3160023/the-fifth-element-nl
    Do you mean to open the file in MPC and then open SubtitleDownloader and hit the “Search” button in the left column ? If so, nothing was found.
    B.t.w., when I open Subtitle Downloader and add the video file (button in the right column) the uploaded files (see links above) are NOT found.

  19. Thanks for describing the problem. I know what the problems is – your files are too big. I checked filesize, and max unsigned for int in mysql – http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/numeric-type-overview.html – so I changed it to bigint, now it should work ok. So please, upload those subs again (it should write hash is updated…), and everything should work. To clear this problem – unique key is hash AND filesize. Filesize was other, so it cannot find it. I hope we solved this problem 🙂

  21. Thanks again 2qe. To be honest, I don’t understand your description of the problem completely, but it does work now. I could download the files that I uploaded.
    I will keep trying it with videos without subtitles. Nice addition to MPC !

  23. I have followed all your descrption but when i opend the page so i can download subtitles i couldnt find SUBTITLES what do I suppost to do PLZZZZ help?

  24. Rehab, it means subtitles aren’t connected with your movie. You have to search for those subtitles via webpage. If they are OK, upload them using OSCAR or SubDownloader. After upload they should be visible to MPC too.

  25. I have tried to do so but i think coz the movie i want the subtitled for is spanish so is very hard for me to find the subtitled for that movie in the web Its called “Corazon Salavje” any soloution and thanx for your help?? U dnt knw how much i suffered and tried to find a subtitle for that movie i think i will give up 🙁

  26. I find this service nice but short sighted. My first point is that your site survives because of add money. If you offer such a service, people will use it and then, how will you be able to pay for hosting, etc. ? You need the net to make some money, don’t you ?
    Also, think that making a “net-free” api will not encourage people to upload, they will just download…
    More importantly, it is true that you offer a unique tool but it also means that other subtitle sites will copy it if they do not want to be lost in the race and, in time, this will be the end of subtitles… Why ? Because people making subtitles for the community such as ourselves will see your site rule, our own site will go down and then, why should we bother to provide “you” with subtitles ?? You see, having the monopole on something you do not produce on your own is short sighted and will mean that we will stop providing the very subtitles you want to spread ! Keep in mind that you do not OWN not PRODUCE any subtitle! Do you realize that we work a lot to make subtitles and that having you profiting of our work in unfair ? We can tolerate that your site ends up getting our subtitles but if you get all the subtitle market on your own, we will not tolerate it and stop producing subtitles … In your idea of getting the biggest, you might end up getting an empty site… Think of it…

  27. I tend to aggree with the last comment. Your tool is awesome but disturbing. I also do think that, since you profit from an effort from the community, you should think for the community. Being number one is of course nice but killing the very source of your subtitles might discourage translators… You should also let them profit from their own efforts… I believe that since you are around, they must have lost a lot of their users, but now, with this new tool, they would lose them all. I do not think that merely mentionning their site in your application or on your site would help: nobody would care to go on their site when such a program as yours is around… I really agree with zion23_99 on this one. Pushing things forward is terrific, pushing them too far is dangerous.

  28. I did not see the use of MPC as a problem before but I give you guys that you are right. It is true that opensubtitles kind of uses others work and even makes money on it. I can understand the problem here for a small site that works hard translating subtitles. It must be frustrating. One solution could have been to implement signatures in all subtitles, but i believe this was discuted and rejected as everybody prefers to not have their subs spiled by site adds. I also aggree with that. I guess this MPC soft should be removed for several reasons. First, the site is always down. Second, I am willing to spend 30 sec. to look for subtitles online if this means that translators will continue their terrific job. Third, it is true that opensubtitles profits from others job and steals their profit. Fourth, if this is not removed, I really think that translators will stop at once (I saw on some forums that they are complaining already). Fifth, opensubtitles is big enough and should leave other sites survive.

  30. guys, you are right! This is bad business… Talked to people at divxsubtitles.net, moviesandsubtitles.net and subtitlesbox.com when I saw these comments yesterday and all agreed: they will not go for software search. Some were thinking to even have a search implemented in vlc but they renounced to prevent any problem with translators. I am also a translator at http://www.forom.com/ and agree with last comments… I would really rethink my strategy if I were you guys…

  31. Actually, if you think of it, the whole site is stealing subs… Oscar, subdownloader and even the internet page… But I guess the point is that the MPC idea is dangerous as it could lead to a monopole of opensubtitles or a spreading of application-driven subtitle searches. In both cases, small sites making the hard work will not be able to survive and eventually die… This will provoke a loss of great translation work. I know many translators and they rarely spend hours to edit subtitles for free… They are mostly getting some add money from the site they submit their subtitles to. I can understand their anger to see their work made available on opensubtitles. If opensubtitles grows further, they will stop… That is sure… If it were only up to me, I would vote for a closure of all the applications proposed here, so that other sites have a chance… Especially since they produce the very subtitles ! Equality should rule here.

  34. I’d like to share a few thoughts of my own regarding the topics discussed here.

    First of all, I am one of the admins here at OS and also the creator of Oscar.

    Having said that let me sum up the thoughts (and my reactions) people shared thus far.

    zion23_99 mentioned the risk WE take allowing users to upload/download from an application (without visiting our website). That’s true. This is nothing new for us. Whilst other sites might consider this an unacceptable risk we’d like to think that we can survive such a move (only future will tell) and by doing so allow more comfort to our users.

    zion23_99 is also right in one thing, we are creating an environment for competition here. In my opinion competition is healthy, it keeps you on your toes trying to do your best to top someone else. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. None of us claims to be all-knowing but we do our best all the time in the little spare-time we have. Your assumption that because our site provides a great service, others are automatically doomed is incorrect, I think. It’s just a challenge, nothing more.

    We are definitely not trying to create a monopoly here, just to provide a high-quality user-friendly site that allows users to quickly find what they are searching for and to make it as easy as possible to share their own creations.

    OS has been started back in 2006 because we thought a subtitle site can be created better than anything that was available on the net at that time. And I’m proud to say that time (and users’ feedback) until now has proven us correct.

    We are also trying to create a community here. We have a forum where people can discuss, a blog to inform about the latest development and a bunch of people who are ready to help whenever they can and fix problems asap.

    Let’s talk about translators for a while now. I consider myself one of them and I also know a few others. I don’t know anyone who’s doing it for the money (and also none of the people I know have their own website). Main motivation when translating subtitles for me and the people I know is supporting and expanding something (movie, tv show, …) I really like, help friends, learn something. This is of course highly subjective and others can have other reasons but I think we share the same emotion of joy to get positive feedback to our work and see it spread. I translated only a few of my most favorite movies but I’m always glad to see my subtitles somewhere I didn’t expect them to be.

    And a few short remarks to zion23_99:
    – you can tolerate our site getting your subtitles? I’d think you’d be happy they are spreading. I always am.
    – despite what you think this is not a profit site. Donations and earnings go toward bandwidth expenses and server upgrades. Most of the admins/staff do it for free, programmers alike.
    – I didn’t know there’s such a thing as ‘subtitles market’, never thought of it that way. I like the word ‘community’ more: help, get help, share.
    – I’d like to be bold and say: this site will never be empty, not with more than 300 000 subtitles on it already.
    – I’d like to think that if you stop translating, somebody else will start and that users/translators will recognize that we are providing a quality service and they’ll join us in our efforts. Not for the money but to be creative, learn and help others. We’re not in it for the money.

    @subman: I’d like to think that the source of subtitles aren’t any other subtitle sites (they all do basically what we do) but the translators themselves. And I think translators should have a choice where to upload their subtitles. We’re just one of the choices, just like all the other subtitle sites/communities.

    To close up my thoughts regarding this topic, neither OSDb nor ISDb (protocols) are site-specific. Oscar is not site-specific. Feel free to implement the protocol on your site if you like and use it. I think you’ll like it. Just be ready to deal with the loss of visitors at your web site. We think it’s worth it.

    @florida:
    – leave other sites survive? I don’t see how we’re killing them, we’re providing competition, that’s a good thing I think. If there’s no competition people are forced to go to those who offer lousy service.
    – I don’t think OS is big enough. It’s getting bigger every day. It’s worked on all the time, it’s being expanded, new features are added, more services are provided. Show me one other site that has so many cool features. Be it the basic ones like 2-step search, advanced search, simple browse interface or advanced like XML-RPC services or RSS feeds. When I think of ‘biggest’ I like to think of biggest as in ‘the one with the most services/features’.

    Next topic is ‘stealing subtitles’ @lachate and @wordik:

    First of all, we’re not stealing subtitles. We mainly provide an interface and backend system for users to download/upload subtitles. Our users are the only ones who upload subtitles, we can’t control their sources (and I don’t see why we would as ‘sharing’ is the word). We’re not scanning other sites on a daily basis and add subtitles to our site. That’s what I call stealing subtitles.

    @lachate:
    – you know actually sites that give out some of their ad money to translators/uploaders? How do they distinguish what’s original work and what’s somebody else’s work? Please give me a few examples, I’d like to learn more about this.
    – honestly I can’t see their anger when they see their subtitles somewhere else as they already got paid.
    – it’s not sure they will stop if OS grows further. Nothing’s for sure.
    – don’t get me wrong, we appreciate all the work translators do but give us a break, ok? Just because people want to earn some extra money, we should stop providing our services?
    – “so that other sites have a chance?” What sites are you talking about? Can you give me an example? They produce subtitles? No, translators produce subtitles, not subtitle sites. And on the other hand, if other subtitle sites produce subtitles, what makes you think we don’t? I know a few translators who upload their creations primarily to our site. And one of the reasons they do is the simplicity of doing so in our web/applications.

    And last a special section @Anonymous:
    – moviesandsubtitles.net? really? it’s a rip-off of OS in design, in functionality, in everything. And they are stealing subtitles from basically everywhere without any credit whatsoever. Today I uploaded a few subtitles to OS and they instanly appeared on this site. No credits at all (no uploader, no nothing). Did you try uploading a subtitle file there? Quite an experience, I tried it. Please do not use ‘moviesandsubtitles.net’ and OS in the same sentence 😉 They claim they have 10 million users? Wow, guess we’re really small in comparison.
    – I’d like to speculate here a little. I believe the sites mentioned refused to implement a search in VLC because it would reduce their traffic. But that’s only my opinion.
    – http://www.forom.com is a highly-respected site by me and I’d like to thank all the translators there for their hard work. I personally don’t use their subtitles but they can be seen everywhere around the web, being translated to other languages, spreading to every corner, making people a little happier. And I think that’s the way to go. Create a great community, do great work and your efforts will be appreciated.

    I think subtitle translators are mainly (at least in my area) focused around movie/tv show fan sites. I’d like to extend a big thanks to all the people active in those communities. I also hope that we can contribute in sharing their great work with other communities and thus providing appreciation, feedback and expanding their fame.

    This is just my personal opinion and although I am associated with OS I don’t want to speak for the site itself. It’s just my idea of what we’re trying to do here. Discussions and feedback are always welcome, that’s how we grow.

    Enjoy, have fun and do your best …

    P.S. ISDb has been around for several years now, I wonder why people are having problems with it (and consider it dangerous) just now 😉

  35. I believe that the problem is that, from now, with your new appi, people will mostly come to your site. Where you are wrong and even lying is when you say that translators do it for free. Spending hours editing a sub is not fun at all. You do not do it for free unlike, like you, you are “associated” with the site you release the subtitles to. All these people will not continue. I know I won’t if all the credit/money goes to your site. You speak of other sites ripping you off ? I find this funny as you are ripping other sites! Whether you do it through users or alone is not the point ! Remember that OS started as a leech site !!!
    There is a subtitle market, everybody knows it. Whether you wanna play it as the idealist guy is up to you. We both know that this is a hypocritical view !!! You are associated to OS for god’s sake ! How honest is that ? Now, you gonna answer us using an other name telling that you are a translator doing it for the community ?? Right… And stop lying by telling nobody makes any money here…
    I guess we all see you efforts and your motivations… The problem is that you are killing free competition. You kill all small sites and find it healthy … Who is ripping of who ? At least, on the site you mentionned, moviesandsubtitles, they are honest and write that they search other sites and even mention them. You, you are getting other sites products (and I m not sure that you do not upload yourself subtitles taken from other sites as you mentioned you just did today) through several means and do not credit the very sites the subs come from !!! A dumby uploader name is in no way the recognition of the work made for a site !!!! I do not see in your upload applications any place where to implement the site the subtitles came from !!! how do you want contributors to “expand their fame” as you nicely put it ??? Do you thank forum.com anywhere in your subtitles ????????

    Please, understand that this is a friendly warning by several people !!!! You ought to consider it !!!

  36. Nicely put subman, we are on the same page !

    I would also add that it is funny that you criticize other sites such as http://www.moviesandsubtitles.net but not http://www.divxsubtitles.net. The first is a danger for you as they have twice more subtitles (672.000) than you do (319.000) while the other has only 90.000. I aggree with subman. They guys at moviesandsubtitles are honest, they say from the start that they are a metasearch. You, you try to pass for a “community guy” while you make worst. You do not aknowledge anybody at all, only a bogus name that could be yourslef ripping other databases, these very databases working hard.
    What is your site all about ? To have a cool interface for users. That is this interface which is the problem ! You are denying other sites their right to profit from their work. Most do not have a great server as ou do to offer a software-based download. what will they do then ? I ask you …

  37. As told, I am associated to http://www.forom.com.

    Thank you for acknowledging our work but this is not enough. As nicely written previously, your site has become a problem. We could live having your users uploading subtitles from our site to yours because this is fair (assuming that you do not scan our site…). However, offering an application that could make you the number one site is unfair. You need to think in terms of consequences… We work hard and cannot prevent our subtitles to end up on your site. But if you become the greatest site around, what will we become ? There are more than 200 people ar forom.com, each getting something for their contribution.
    I beg you to reconsider for the sake of the very community you wish to protect…

  38. I cannot believe it : you erased my comments !!!! So now there is a censure here !!!! I post it again for the sake of subtitles…
    Nicely put subman, we are on the same page !
    I would also add that it is funny that you criticize other sites such as moviesandsubtitles.net but not divxsubtitles.net. The first is a danger for you as they have twice more subtitles (672.000) than you do (319.000) while the other has only 90.000. I aggree with subman. They guys at moviesandsubtitles are honest, they say from the start that they are a metasearch. You, you try to pass for a “community guy” while you make worst. You do not aknowledge anybody at all, only a bogus name that could be yourslef ripping other databases, these very databases working hard.
    What is your site all about ? To have a cool interface for users. That is this interface which is the problem ! You are denying other sites their right to profit from their work. Most do not have a great server as ou do to offer a software-based download. what will they do then ? I ask you …

  39. ok guys, sorry for late reply, we hade some work with upgrading servers, and I was also outside a little bit 🙂
    I am happy we have so nice discussion here. Overall, I have to agree with Majky, he is talking from my heart.
    Anyway, I’d like to write some comments here too:
    – you are basically saying: stop API service, website is OK, if I understand good. I ask you – what’s the difference between scraping programs, there are many on internet. Difference is, those subtitles scraping programs don’t assign subtitles to movies. But they already exists, if you don’t know what I am talking about just ask me.
    – we were not first on internet with this idea. For example MPC, Gabest was very clever and knows, this is future of subtitle downloading, so he prepared something easy – ISDb. I saw some bottleneck, so I developed OSDb. For your information, first introduction for ISDb (and this article is about ISDb, not about OSDb!) was first introduced in MPC 6.4.8.3 released at 2005-02-26 17:46, so this feature is almost 3 YEARS OLD. We are just bringing it back online. Why you don’t implement this too, if you care about users as we do ?
    – to make clear things – I am just another coder, and just another movie watcher, so why not code something like this ? You are talking that subtitle translators will stop their work, I don’t think so, I am sorry.
    – I always think translators doing their great job for something “more” than money. They are doing that for own prestige, they want their subtitles should be spreaded as much as possible. They can write their own webpage inside subtitles, in comments, also in uploader profile.
    – I think it is too late stop this service, we are not alone on this “market”, check polish system of downloading, it is basically the same, if not better.

    to qaa: here is democracy, we are not erasing nothing, no censure at all. It was caused you posted 2 http links, and wordpress is setup, that I have to confirm (moderate) those messages, so don’t panic man!

    for http://www.moviesandsubtitles.net – this is really ugly page, but ok, someone can like it. Problem is, they COPY and PASTE our texts from MANY languages. For example Slovak language “- Vy rozhodujete (stále vo vývoji)” this is no coincidence. They are rippers, but we don’t care about this, we believe, that users will see they are just another copy…
    for http://www.divsxubtitles.net – this is very old page, very simple. I studied this page a little, and programmer is really great skilled, just check URL of CAPTCHA and you will see what I am talking about.

    To be honest, there are REALLY better webpages than this two, check:
    http://www.podnapisi.net/
    http://subscene.com/
    http://www.mysubtitles.org/

    I talked to some of those webmaster, they are cool guys, they have no problem with my site. Everyone is doing its job, and better should “win”.

    We are doing this for users, and everyone can see this. Try ask users what they think about this. Oh, we already asked:
    http://forum.opensubtitles.org/viewtopic.php?t=145

  40. Come on guys… You are getting bitter… I find it disturbing that you get crazy because some other site does not look in your taste or some other takes some of your content. I would like to remember you that you are also ripping the IMDB database !!! Come on ! This is how it works nowadays… People help themselves as you do ! You are also ripping other site subtitles through users… Anyway, I say that a bit more tolerance for each others might be needed here. As for the subtitles programs, I find them good but they should be made in collaboration with translators … Implementing the site where a sub comes from could be nice…

  42. Sweet! Thanks for that, now I can finish my cultural lessons on Japan AND understand what is being said.

  43. Pingback: Subtitle Downloader - Mini Guide « Quad Tek

  44. This is insane. I can’t believe how easy life gets after doing this. This reinstates the belief that MPC, though “classic” looking, is really generations ahead of any other player out there.

  45. Thanks for comment, we like MPC too, still using it. There are also other good players like Mplayer, VLC and so on. We should see this feature in this players too. Just patience.

  46. Hi all, some interesting debate; just a little imprecise. no one has really backed up their points with numbers – just emotive words like ‘lots’, ‘most’ etc.
    I suspect this is all a moot point anyway, what percentage of users will use this function anyway? Perhaps >85% people dont mess with options other than obvious ones. People like us play with every option available, ‘users’ arent like that
    Dont see why everybody is so stressed about ad money division, after bandwidth, hardware overheads etc there probably isnt enough left for more than 2 beers and a porno. Big deal.
    On net people do stuff for props, kudos etc. Get the recognition thing sorted for the translators and that should deal with most of the legit beefs – Im not fussed about the webmaster of some metasearch losing traffic; its the translators who matter.
    Just my 2p’s worth…

  47. I am a professional subtitler, and you are stealing from me and my hard working colleagues. How would you feel if somebody stole something from you?

    Are you just thoughtless or ruthless?
    But at least it’s nice to know that you need our subtitles so badly for the movies that you also have stolen …

  49. Well, the thing most people here seem to be ignoring is that these subtitles are done for “scene” releases. There are people (actors, directors, writers, etc) that make the movies and shows that the scene rips and publishes. Then, other people makes subtitles for that releases, and some other people creates websites like this one to spread them.

    But the ORIGINAL work is done by that actors, writers, etc!!!! the rest depend on them. So, neither the scene nor the subtitles creators/translators can economically profit from this, since that would be stealing the original creators; they can do it but ONLY non-profit. That is legally true in many countries (some does not allow even the non-profit part!!!) and I think that is ethically true everywhere.

    So, the people that “works” or “create” the subtitles and are not expressly allowed to do so by the ORIGINAL creators cannot comply about “losing profits” or “stealing”, since there CANNOT BE any profits and so there is nothing to steal. And if actually there is profit, they are the actual thiefs!!!! and to steal to a thief is not only allowed but also a good thing.

    The people that make websites to distribute the subs, they CAN profit from that, since they are not directly manipulating the work of the original creators, only their users do and that users do not profit (if they do and are nor authorized by the original creators, they are thieves).

    But those people are just *distributors* for the work of others, and if some other distributor does a better work (by “better” I mean, the users prefer their site), they should not complain but either work harder or close their site. It is like a TV station that broadcasts in standard definition accusing of “stealing” to the high-definition-broadcasting ones, because people prefer HD and so they lose their viewers and the ad revenue… simply ridiculous.

  50. Personally I don’t see this as bad.

    I see this as innovation, it’s a step forward. Its all about innovating, and making things user friendly.

    We’ve got computers! We should bleedin well use them to do the work for us and make things simpler and faster.

    As previously stated, ISDb, OSDb, the implementation in MPC have been around for quite some time, just not properly utilized.

    There is nothing stopping other sites from taking advantage of that and doing the same as OS.

    Even if users are uploading Sub’s to OS, someone will download that Sub, and most likely they will upload it somewhere else.

    So those Sub’s will end up on other sites as well.

    If this method is exclusive to OS, thats not their fault! They can only be in control of the direction of THEIR site, not other Subtitles sites.

    Its open source, anyone can do what they are doing!

    Now that raises another question… Why aren’t other sites advancing themselves, being innovative, making things easier for us!

    That angers me more, that other sites aren’t making it easier.

    I find it difficult finding a Sub that is sync’ed to a video, so I sometimes have to sync it myself. And when I upload them to a site, they end up on other sites.

    So they in essence end up in the same place… The net!

    I for one thank OS for utilizing something that was around before them to make it easier for US!

    Thanks OS!

  51. Pingback: blog.OpenSubtitles.org » How to watch movies with subtitles?

  52. This db can only be a good thing. Ignore the haters out there who are afraid of the new (3 years old) interface they were too lazy to implement themselves.

    All this site is, is a freaking db that integrates seamlessly into media player classic. This is a warning to all the competition out there, you better adapt and innovate or you’re gonna get steamrolled. Look what happened to myspace vs. facebook. If people like it, they will use it and you’re gonna get left in the dust.

    At any rate, keep up the good work!

  54. Pingback: Latest Tech , Games , Gadget and Free Web Application News at HellSperm.com » Blog Archive » MiniGuide for Movie Subtitle

  55. In Subtitles -> Database I tried to test the url http://www.opensubtitles.org/isdb/, but it wouldn’t work, the error message said
    “Bad URL, could not locate subtitle database there!”

    Why?
    I have MPCStar 2.1/Media Player Classic.
    OS: Windows XP Professional (SP2)

  56. In Subtitles -> Database I tried to test the url http://www.opensubtitles.org/isdb/, but it wouldn’t work, the error message said
    “Bad URL, could not locate subtitle database there!”

    Why?
    I have MPCStar 2.1/Media Player Classic.
    OS: Windows XP Professional (SP2)

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  60. OMG man thx a lot u saved me,i was looking how to make this work for an hour and this has explained very well,thx

  61. I have tried to get it work with the movie “American Gangster” and Greek subtitles from http://subscene.com/American-Gangster/subtitles-69885.aspx

    subtitles show up but is not in Greek…..seem like “chinese” to me…like something with the encoding is wrong. Tried to use subs downloaded from else where ,same problem.Used English subs,shows up OK. Any ideas whats wrong? I hate my new Vista and am afraid that is something wrong with them…obviuosly am not a computer expert.. 🙂 Thanks for any help.

  62. Pingback: How to watch video with subtitle « Korean Drama

  63. I have used MPC and subdownloader, didnt find any Greek subs,I downloaded 2 different subs from 2 different websites…..and the subs show up as some kind of wrong unicode or encoding. Same thing when try to play with VLC. Please help me.

  64. OS, thanks for your guide! It works for me! However, when I am playing the movie, there are some colour lines on the screen which I cannot get rid of…there are 4 green coloured lines in the middle of the screen from top to bottom and more smaller lines on the right side bottom of the screen as well…looks like there is a frame! I tried download MPC from other website again and reinstalled it but it is the same 🙁 Can you tell me what is the problem?

  65. Thank you very much! It was just the thing this idiot needed! Your instructions were clear and simple and Woohoo – I have the subtitles I needed

    Thank you again
    domino

  66. Pingback: Â¥ » Archive du blog » Récuperer les sous-titres automatiquement avec Media Player Classic

  67. Hey,
    since a few days I am downloading movies and things and now I am trying to downlaod subtitles but if I follow your instructions I can’t downlaod it:
    I mean this step:
    -Step 4: Open some movie (drag and drop, CTRL+O), and click File-> Subtitle Database -> ?Download?
    Does anyone know what the problem might be?
    thank you

  68. In Subtitles -> Database I tried to test the url http://www.opensubtitles.org/isdb/, but it wouldn’t work, the error message said
    “Bad URL, could not locate subtitle database there!”

    Why?
    I have already read the previos posts on the same topic and I have done everything you said. but it’s still not working….what can I do???
    pllllllllzzzzzzzz help me…….

  69. I just wanted to thank you!=)Your instruction is awesome!Now i can watch whatever i want!!=)
    Thank you very much!:))

  77. i have download MPC that you recommend but when i click file>subtitle database>download…it is disabled..
    only upload and search is enable…
    can u help me???please…thnx in advance ^_^

  78. I have download Subtitle but after I unzip that file it also occurs NFO file. So, I can’t see my subtitle. Could you help me? please……. Thank you

  79. I can watch movie with subtiltle but can’t save it.

    Pleas help how to save subtitle before write to CD???

  80. I downloaded everything, everything worked
    but, when i tried to watch
    the subtitles didn’t appear, everytime i paused they appeared, but, when it was playing it just didn’t work.
    can you help me, please? :/~

  82. Can anyone pls suggest me (astep-by-step) if I see nothing on the list when I reached step 5 ? There are no languages on the list at all ! Cheers !

  83. HI
    I have downloaded MPC that you recommend but when i click file>subtitle database>download…it is disabled..
    only upload and search is enabled…

    if I click load subtitle it says “to load subtitle you have change the video renderer type and reopen the file.
    Direct Show: VMR7/VMR9 renderless or hali’s (I DID IT AS YOU TELL IN STEP 1!!!)

    What about “VMR7/9 and DirectX 7/9 settings” in Options>Playback>Output ????

    can u help me???please…
    thnx in advance ^_^

  84. All the whining is kinda funny…. of all the people I know, maybe 2% uses MPC to begin with… out of those 2%…. there is maybe 2.54% that uses the subtitles database feature…

    To say that this will “destroy” the sub scene is ridiculous…

    Oh and not only that, but when I find a reliable subtitle source for a TV. Serie, I will go back to that sub group for all the episodes of the serie… even if I downloaded it with MPC’s subtitle DB in the first place….Now can we stop the crying please…

    *Note that all the numbers and statistics in this comments were totally pulled out of my ass in the purpose of proving an obvious point…the subscene will not die because of this feature of MPC….

  85. Hi!
    I can now watch movies in english, but how can I record a movie with this new subtitle in a DVD media using MPC? Is it possible??

    Many thanks!

  86. where is the link to download the older version that has the subtitle downloader thing? i dont see any link or blog. when i first downloaded this thing, everything was there in the options menu…but then for some reason, now it is not there anymore. apparently i must have accidentally re-installed the newer version at some point and now i lost all the ways to go to the subtitle database. why the hell would they remove all that stuff in a newer version? thats stupid. now i am looking all over the place for the version that i originally had installed. i mean, the subtitle database thing is why i installed the stupid thing in the first place. these computer issues are just rediculous.

  87. Kevin: Really nice attitude you have going there. It really makes us want to help you. We appreciate being called stupid and ridiculous.

    Sheesh. Don’t worry, we’ll get you your money back. Please send a scanned version of your paid receipt for the old version and we’ll look into you getting a refund.

  89. everytime i run a movie the program stuck!!!!! im trying since i dont know when, and when finally i can match the subtitles the MPC stuck everytime that i run a movie, what can i do?

  90. The windows advice told me something about the driver R300, stopped responding and has succesfully recovered, can i download the driver or something?

  93. hi!i have the version 6.4.9.0 it did all of your steps,and down loading in ”sutitle database is not available.why;

  94. stavros, it should work, make sure you set correct URL in subtitle database: “www.opensubtitles.org/isdb”, you can press test – and it should pass. Works here without any problems.

    It seems pictures are missing in post 🙂

  95. Hello,
    help me please:
    1. I use MPC for watching downloded movies. I know how to watch them with subtitles when I’m connected to the internet but I don’t know how to save them together for burning on dvd for example.
    I didn’t understand the short explanation movie.

    2. I downloded Apocalypto and when I use the subtitles database it found me only polish subtitles.

    3. The MPC doesn’t read the hebrew subtitles proparly.

    What should I do ? Can you help me ??
    Thank you for help.

  96. Increadible feature this one!!

    But i have a problem with MKV Files..
    I can only render them in MPC in “Overlay Mixed” in order to watch it ok in my computer. So that means i cannot load any subtitles (since its not “WMR9 Renderless”)

    Any other way to load the subtiltles in MPC?

  97. l3utterfish, thanks. I think there is no workaraound, for MKV files I use some other players (VLC for example)… 🙁

  98. the subtitles work great but when i watch the movie in fullscreen view,the screen goes black with just the subtitles nd the sound but no picture..someone help me plz..

  99. i have download MPC that you recommend but when i click file>subtitle database>download…it is disabled..
    only upload and search is enable…
    can u help me???please…thnx in advance ^_^

  102. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

  103. Brilliant idea,so simply and concisely explained,thank you so much.
    I was sick of searching for subtitles and finding files that were totally out of sync with media .

  104. hi,
    i downloaded the subtitle and its working perfectly fine..but the problem is that the subtitle rate is slower than the movie rate..
    the problem is happening with most of the movies…

  105. Guys, my MPC on my pc and my brother’s laptop which work with vista, the sub database works like a charm; but on my pc which has xp the “download” button is gray/ cannot be pressed so I cannot view the subs availabe. in example the dark knight from done. on my vista-pc everything is ok and finds subs in lots of languages but on this xp-pc does the thing with the “unavailable button”.
    please note that the version is the latest [6.4.9.1. (revision 82)]
    thanks in advance

  106. Hello,

    Firstly many thanks for the great service you are offering. I am learning German and your service helps me big time!

    I would like to know if there is a simple way to adjust the timing of the subtitles? I downloaded one and it comes a few seconds before the scene! Please do let me know a simple solution for this if any. And once again “Vielen Dank”!

    Vikas Sharma

  108. For people where Subtitle Database, Download is disabled, try this:

    – don’t forget to load the movie first !
    – check in MPC if Playback, Output settings are as described
    – install latest video drivers
    – install latest directx
    – try changing color depth to 32 bits if 16, or 16 bits if 32

    If that still doesn’t help, buy a better video card.

  110. I wanted to know where MPC saves these subtitles… I got a perfect match on Leon ad I wanted to keep them but dunno where they are; can’t see them in the movie folder…

  112. how can you save the movie and the subs togheter so you can burn it and watch it on tv?
    when i burn these things and look at my tv i just see the movie and no subs

    please help me

  113. I found an program who puts your subs in the movie and you don’t have to look anymore with Media Player Classic. you can watch wit the normal media player

    i didn’t try it to burn a dvd and watch it on tv but i guess that it will work

    You have to go to google and look for the download of “DirectVobSub”

    enjoy;)

  117. l3utterfish. in short answer – it is not possible. AFAIK there doesnt exists any other database then opensubtiltes supporting ISDB protocol. If you look back to opensubtitles history background, you will know, we take hash in MPC, take existing database, make service freely available for everybody and every program, we kept “the standard” of hashes, and thats why you can find the most subtitles on os. If you want help us, and help your friends (people like you, looking for subtitles), just upload subtitles back to OS using some program (SubDownloader, Oscar and so on). You should read more about OS at http://trac.opensubtitles.org/projects/opensubtitles

  118. l3utterfish: Other sites (at least one) offer APIs for automation but not ISDB.

    It would be a good thing to make ISDB a standard for other types of sites and have them interact with each other but for that we’d need subtitle sites that don’t compete with each other.

  119. Thanx a lot for the guide.. i’m able to watch the movie with subtitles downloaded from the website .. 🙂

  121. i have changed output settings to VMR9 (renderless)…..but still subtitle database -> download is disabled !!….please help

  122. AWESOM!!!!!!!!!!! HELP DUDES!!!!!! SEARCHED THE WHOLE FRIKIN NET BUT CUDNT FIND ANYTHIN PROPER TO HELP ME WITH THE SUBTITLE ISSUE!!!!!!!!! THIS WAS FANTASTIC!!! LOL THANKS ALOT!!!! CHEERS

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  126. I have some norwegian subtitle files but MPC isn’t displaying the non-english norwegian characters properly – I keep getting strange symbols instead and can’t work out what I need to change to fix it.

    Any ideas?

  128. Pablo: (solution in spanish to his problem):
    Ejecuta el Media Player Classic, y pulsa la tecla O para que salgan las opciones, en la ventana de opciones elije la pestaña Output y ahí cambia la opción de DirectShow Video a: VMR7 Renderless o VMR9 Renderless (son las que tienen ** al lado) y dale a Aceptar para cerrar la ventana de Opciones, luego cierra el Media Player Classic

  132. The original MPC is not “a little old”, it’s ancient. But it’s still a great player, and there’s a fork under active development: Media Player Classic Home Cinema – http://mpc-hc.sourceforge.net/

    MPC-HC is also the best tool out there to sync subtitles. It beats everything else in simplicity and speed, including bloated superprograms like Subtitle Workshop.

  134. Thanks a million! I’ve been trying to get the subtitles on a single movie for the past couple of days. It was getting very frustrating, but once I’ve followed your steps, it took me less than 5 minutes.

  136. Pingback: Watching movies on Media Player Classic with Subtitles | Technology Blog

  138. Brilliant read, I just passed this onto a co-worker who was making a little research on that. And he really purchased me lunch cause I found it for him.

  142. Hey… Perfect… followed your steps and it works perfectly. It always anoys me to search for the subtitles, Now it’s super simple, thks. Congrats for the amazing website.

  149. Pingback: Downloading subtitles using MPC : Subtitles blog – blog.opensubtitles.org « robin0479

  152. I did everything and then when i click on test (step 2) it says : bad url cannot connect subtitle database there !! and then when i click on file> subtitle database > download this message appears: cannot connect subtitle database site !!!!
    please enlighten me !!!!!

  154. For some reason this feature does not work anymore, I do like I allways do: File, Subtitle Database, Download and…. Nothing comes up, zero, no matter what it is playing it does not find anymore subtitles, what is going on?
    I also tried with videos that showed subtitles in results before but now it doesn’t.

  160. Does _anyone_ know WHERE these subs are *STORED* after the download? Selecting the “Replace currently loaded subtitles” checkbox does not permanently store the subs anywhere recognizable, because next time one loads the video, the process of hitting ‘D” and selecting the subs needs to be repeated all over gain…

    This wouldn’t be such a problem if it were not for the many people who use the D3D Fullscreen feature, and need to switching out of D3D F-S each time they’d like to re-load the subs — very tedious. Hell, even for the regular user with standard EVR or madVR, it would be *MUCH* more convenient to be able to download the subs once.

    If there was a way to save the subs or figure out where they were being temporarily stored in such a way as to be able to extract them permanently, one could avoid a bunch of messiness with files in general/big directories like ‘Downloads’ — meaning, if you have a video in a crowded directory like Videos or Download (but without its own sub-folder), you wouldn’t need to download separate .srt (or equivalent) titles and place them in the same directory; you could have a nice clean list of videos each with their subs tucked away somewhere, allowing you to simply open the files and watch w/ subs after *ONCE* having used the ‘subtitle database’/ISDB feature.

    So….is there any way to view the videos with subs without repeating the “D”/’File-Subtitle Database-Download…’ procedure each time one loads the video??

    Where are the subs being stored??

    Thanks in advance, and props for this great feature! Help all of us with this issue please!

  161. Oh oops…I found the answer form a somewhat easy-to-miss earlier post…

    After pressing ‘D’ to load the subs, simply press ‘Ctrl+S’ to save the subs in the same directory as the video (and with the same name…unless you choose to alter any of the parameters) — or you can do the same through “File-Save Subtitle…”

    Cool… just wish there was a way to have the subs load every time without having to manually save them or have them be visible when saved next to the video — if you don’t want to clutter up your directory (when the video lacks its own sub-folder/nest and is in a list of other videos or files) it would be nice to have the subs remain in the state they were before you clicked ‘Save Subtitle’ (are they simply stored in the mpc-hc memory temporarily until the app is restarted?)

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  164. Hi, I saw that in a different page you bashed against BSplayer. The reason everybody use it is the way it handle subtitles:

    1 – if an option is activated, it searches automatically subs from the database,
    2 – it filters the list according the chosen language(s),
    3 – it checks 3 different websites and allows for an infinite number,
    4 – it displays a system of rating for each subtitle option

    I’d like if you implemented this on MPC, although I don’t think the 4th point it’s important. If you do, then it will be possiblle to migrate to MPC-HC. Thanks

  165. i have a problem. whenever i press D.. the subtitles are found and downloaded..
    and thats it..
    when i go to the subtitle.. theres no subtitle in it..
    the audiio track
    subtitle track ( greyed out) – why is this greyed out when the subtitle is already downloaded ( which i have no idea where it is whenever i pressed D)
    video track

  166. For me happens the same but only since today.
    i really do not know what happens.
    Any help will be appreciated.

    Tks

  167. is there any abreviation for brazilan portuguese? i’ve tried “pt” (finds only for Portugal) “br” finds nothing, “ptbr” finds nothing, “pt-br” finds nothing, when i search with the option blank it finds brazilian portuguese, but i wanted to find automaticly, so i dont need to search for each ep?

    Thanks!

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